"When you hear about that happening so close to where you serve families, our immediate response is, 'Is that one of our kids, or is that one of our families? Is that one of our parents?'" said Marcus Robinson, chancellor of Charles A. Tindley accelerated school. "So you kind of hold your breath for a minute."

Robinson said he has experienced plenty of those moments; the national recognition for academics hasn't shielded the charter school from surrounding violence.

"Just last summer we had a young man who was a senior in college, doing very well, giving back to his community, (at the) wrong place at the wrong time and... murdered on the west side," said Robinson.